Tech

In today’s podcast news roundup, Marc Maron goes into business with Acast; iHeartMedia orders slate of podcasts from Bloomberg Media; Financial Times and Pushkin Industries probe the porn biz; Sony Music goes into “Binge” mode; American Girl launches podcast network based on its doll franchise; and more. DEALS Top podcaster Marc Maron inked a three-year

China’s e-commerce and media giant Alibaba recorded lower profits in the 12 months to March 2022, following a year of turmoil for tech companies, a weakening Chinese economy, a COVID revival and Russia’s war in Ukraine.. Group revenues increased by 19% in the year to March, reaching $135 billion (RMB853 billion). In the fourth quarter,

Chinese video streamer iQiyi unveiled a rare quarterly profit in the three months to March, amidst a mixed picture on revenue and subscriptions. The company, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange but is predominantly controlled by Chinese tech conglomerate Baidu, said in a filing that it had achieved net income attributable of RMB169

The Federal Trade Commission levied a $150 million fine on Twitter, alleging that the social network let advertisers use private data to target specific users — without informing users of the practice. According to the agency, Twitter violated a 2011 FTC order that “explicitly prohibited” the company from misrepresenting its privacy and security practices. In

Since 2014, satirical website The Onion has published virtually the same article — each with the same headline, “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” — 21 times, each one following a major gun massacre in the United States. On Wednesday, The Onion posted all 21 of the articles on

Can “Exploding Kittens” bring some pyrotechnics to Netflix’s nascent games strategy? The popular “Exploding Kittens” card game is coming to the streamer’s mobile apps starting May 31. It’s the latest in a string of more than a dozen games Netflix has introduced since last fall, but so far it’s too early to tell whether the

Splice, the online music marketplace for rights-cleared sounds and beats, has hired Adobe’s Kakul Srivastava as its new CEO. Founder and CEO Steve Martocci will transition to executive chairman and chief strategy officer. Srivastava arrives from Adobe, where she oversaw and led the company’s $9 billion Creative Cloud business along with building and scaling platforms

What if Bruce Wayne wasn’t an orphan — would there still be a Batman? And how would the superhero be different if Wayne were a Black man, instead of the rich white scion of one of Gotham’s elite families? Variety recently spoke with Winston Duke, star of “Batman Unburied,” the original podcast drama from DC/Warner

Playboy, the 69-year-old lifestyle brand owned by PLBY Group, has hired Loren Piretra as VP of creator and influencer marketing, heading strategy for its recently launched Centerfold platform. Piretra most recently worked at Amazon-owned Twitch as global head of creator and influencer marketing. She starts at PLBY Group on June 1. In her role at

SiriusXM has acquired Team Coco, the Conan O’Brien-led podcast network and digital media business. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The satellite radio company’s pact for Team Coco is worth about $150 million, per the Wall Street Journal. With the deal, Team Coco’s staff will join SiriusXM, continuing to produce the network’s slate of podcasts

CNN Digital editor in chief Meredith Artley is exiting the news organization after more than 12 years, coming a little over a month after the close of the deal creating Warner Bros. Discovery. Artley, who joined CNN in October 2009, announced her departure in a memo to staff Friday. “It’s been a rewarding and long

Epic Games’ Fortnite is feeling The Force again. Under a pact with Disney’s Lucasfilm, Obi-Wan Kenobi is coming to Fortnite’s item shop next week — with an outfit and gear based on Ewan McGregor’s turn as the fabled Jedi Master in the forthcoming Disney+ series. Kenobi made a brief appearance in Fortnite on May the

Disney’s Hulu hopes to usher in a raft of subscribers with a new special deal — offering its ad-supported streaming plan for just $1 per month for three months. Starting Friday, new and eligible returning subscribers can sign up for the Hulu with ads package for $1/month for three months. That’s an 86% discount off

For the first time, Nielsen has reported TV time spent viewing estimates for HBO Max — with the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned service coming in with a 1% share for April 2022, as the streaming sector overall took its highest share of U.S. TV viewing to date. HBO Max previously was included in Nielsen’s “other streaming”

Kids love rewatching their favorites — but how to get them to watch something new? Netflix has cooked up a new way to spur tykes to stream more content: It’s tempting them with a “Mystery Box,” which will reveal a recommended TV show or movie they haven’t seen before. The Mystery Box is launching on

This year, Global Accessibility Awareness Day falls on May 19. And Netflix is using the occasion to announce major plans to expand the global translations of its audio descriptions and subtitles for customers who are blind, deaf or hard-of-hearing. The streamer will expand audio description (AD), subtitles for the deaf or hard-of-hearing (SDH) and dubbing

FaZe Clan, the digital-native media, entertainment and esports platform, has hired music industry veteran Zach Katz for the role of president and chief operating officer. Katz arrives from music-tech investment venture fund Raised In Space Enterprises, which he cofounded in 2019 — in partnership with Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings — and led as CEO. In

Cannes is going Meta. The social giant formerly known as Facebook is taking the Croisette by storm and rolling out the red carpet for creators at the festival. Meta has unveiled its first creator villa, which will be powered by Instagram and host up to 300 content creators over two days at the iconic Palais

Disney is anticipating that over the long term, the majority of Disney+ customers will pick the lower-cost, ad-supported plan, which is set to launch later this year. “Based on our Hulu experience, we actually have more AVOD [ad-supported video-on-demand] than SVOD [subscription VOD] subscribers,” Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said, speaking Wednesday at the 9th Annual

Bob Iger, Disney’s former CEO and chairman, is now a part-owner of Gopuff, a company that provides quick-delivery services in 1,200 cities worldwide that counts Selena Gomez among its investors. The amount of Iger’s investment in Gopuff wasn’t disclosed. He will become an adviser to the company’s co-founders and co-CEOs Yakir Gola and Rafael Ilishayev

Gen Z superstar JoJo Siwa is getting her own show on Facebook, following the exuberant multihyphenate on “crazy-fun adventures” with her pals. Facebook Watch greenlit original hybrid docuseries-format series “JoJo Goes,” slated to premiere in the summer of 2022. In the show, Siwa will be joined by celebrity friends to partake in a range of

TikTok is finally going to let users of the short-form app properly give credit where credit is due. The Bytedance-owned app is introducing the first iteration of creator-crediting tools that will enable — and encourage — users to link back to the videos of TikTok creators and trend originators. Until now, TikTok creators could only

A bright-red, child-size magical morphing creature is heading to Disney platforms. Disney Branded Television inked a deal with Moonbug Entertainment for 52 episodes of 7-minute CG series, “Morphle,” based on the YouTube short-form hit My Magic Pet Morphle. It’s the first partnership between Disney and Moonbug, whose properties include the CoComelon kids’ content juggernaut. The

The TV upfronts are usually a dog-and-pony show where networks unveil their new content slates. At YouTube’s Brandcast presentation for brands and agencies, held for the first time during upfronts week, the focus was on the gigantic video platform’s popular creators, its scale across internet TVs — and a new solution for marketers to set

Netflix has pink-slipped about 150 staffers, mostly in the U.S., as it works to rein in costs with its top-line growth having slowed down. The cuts come across departments and are driven by the need to reduce expenses rather than the performance of individual employees, according to the company. The layoffs represent roughly 2% of

Oscar, BAFTA and Grammy winning Indian composer A.R. Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”) has revealed his next directorial venture after “Le Musk,” his debut which premiered at the Cannes Film Market’s Cannes XR program. The project will be another film in the VR space, titled “Confessions.” “Now this [“Le Musk”] is finished and we’re happy about it,

As TikTok has become more ingrained in the fabric of today’s society, the line between the social media world and the entertainment industry is growing increasingly blurred. With millions of followers to their name, TikTok creators are now an undeniable force in Hollywood, making their presence known in film, television and music. In celebration of

Candle Media, the next-gen media roll-up play run by ex-Disney execs Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, today announced the acquisition of ATTN:, a media company that produced short-form news content for Gen Z and millennial audiences. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. According to a source familiar with the pact, Candle Media is paying about $100 million

In the latest twist in Elon Musk’s will-he-or-won’t-he Twitter buyout saga, the billionaire is demanding hard proof of the social network’s assertion that less than 5% of its users are fake accounts or spam bots — and he said the deal cannot “move forward” until Twitter does so. Without citing any evidence for his claim,

Netflix signed a multiyear services renewal with VFX and animation company DNEG, under which the streamer expects to spend at least $350 million with the company through 2025. The non-exclusive agreement covers the provision of visual effects and virtual production services by DNEG for Netflix series and movies through September 2025. The new deal extends